YouTube Comment Replies
YouTube Comment Replies are public responses nested beneath a top-level video comment, with reply text, author identity, visible likes, publication time, and parent or video context. These thread records support conversation reconstruction, response review, and public-discussion dataset preparation.
Features
- Stable comment referenceStart from a public video URL and its parent comment ID while SocQ resolves the current reply continuation token internally.
- Reply and author recordsReturn reply IDs, public text, associated URLs, publication times, and normalized author or channel identity.
- Thread and creator contextKeep visible likes, nested-reply counts, parent comment and video references, and channel-owner or creator-heart markers together.
- Bounded continuation collectionFollow subsequent source continuation tokens, remove duplicate reply IDs, and stop at the selected limit, an exhausted thread, or the 100-page ceiling.
Parameters
| Parameters | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
url | Required | Required stable public YouTube video URL containing the parent comment. |
comment_id | Required | Required top-level comment ID belonging to the submitted video URL. |
results_limit | Optional | Maximum public replies to collect from this thread. The documented example uses 20 and the accepted range is 20 through 2000. |
How to Use
Submit a stable video URL and parent comment ID as an asynchronous task, then read normalized reply records from the completed task.
- Choose a public YouTube video URL and a top-level comment ID returned for that video.
- POST url, comment_id, and results_limit to /v1/youtube/comment-replies.
- Retain the returned task_id and poll GET /v1/tasks/{task_id} while the task is queued, running, or retrying.
- After success, read data.results.items and pass data.results.next_cursor as cursor on the task request while data.results.has_more is true.
curl -X POST "https://api.socq.ai/v1/youtube/comment-replies" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SOCQ_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ","comment_id":"Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg","results_limit":20}'
# Poll GET /v1/tasks/{task_id}
# Read data.results.items and pass data.results.next_cursor as cursor while has_more is trueBest Use Cases
- Known-thread reconstruction: Use reply IDs, parent_comment_id, video_id, URLs, and timestamps to reconnect saved responses with a selected top-level comment.
- Reply-level audience review: Compare public reply text, author identity, visible likes, nested-reply counts, and creator interaction markers within one known thread.
- Public discussion dataset preparation: Combine normalized reply text, authors, timestamps, and thread context into records for manual review or downstream text processing.
Pro Tips
- Keep the video URL and top-level comment ID paired so the reply thread and source video remain aligned.
- SocQ resolves the current continuation token internally; retry with the same stable reference if an upstream token expires.
- Keep the source comment ID separate from the cursor returned by GET /v1/tasks/{task_id}; the first selects a YouTube reply thread, while the second pages through saved task results.
- Set results_limit to the expected thread size, but treat it as a ceiling because public visibility and thread exhaustion can reduce the returned count.
- Deduplicate saved records by reply ID and retain parent_comment_id, video_id, and extra.reply_token when joining replies back to their source comment.
- Allow nullable author, timestamp, metric, and creator-marker fields, and escape public reply text before displaying it in another interface.
Related APIs
Use these APIs when you need a different type of public YouTube data.
- YouTube Channel Videos API — Collect regular public videos from channel URLs, excluding Shorts and live streams.
- YouTube Comments API — Collect public comments, authors, engagement, source videos, and conversation context.
- YouTube Transcripts API — Retrieve available plain-text transcripts with optional language selection.
- YouTube Channels API — Retrieve public channel identity, images, verification, and visible audience statistics.
- YouTube Videos API — Retrieve metadata, thumbnails, duration, and engagement for known video or Short URLs.
- YouTube Shorts API — Collect public Shorts, thumbnails, duration, publication details, and engagement by channel.
- YouTube Search API — Search public regular videos by keyword with supported metadata filters.
- YouTube Channel Live Videos API — Collect public broadcast records exposed on channel live surfaces, with source context and visible metrics.
- YouTube Community Posts API — Collect public Community-tab posts from channel URLs, including text, channel identity, timestamps, image references, and source context.
- YouTube Hashtag Search API — Find public videos from hashtag feeds with all-content or Shorts-only collection.
- YouTube Playlist Videos API — Collect video identity, channel context, thumbnails, duration, and playlist provenance from public playlist URLs or IDs.